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 dtewsacrificial
    
Location: Bay Area, CA
Gender: Male
On my way out the door.
 |  |  | A sneaking mission of opportunity.
< on 4/22/2012 5:46 AM >
|  | | | Hello again, y'all. Back from the late winter that I furiously devoted to Kirkwood. It was awesome, BTW.
So I'd been scouting this place, which is a defunct metalworks. I was, um... dissuaded... from being even in the vicinity (a block away?) by some sort of official. I also noted there was a security guard at the entrance, albeit he didn't seem like he was very diligent, as he was napping in his car.
I swung by today on a whim and to my surprise, the guard was not there at all. I dropped my car off about a mile away and approached on foot.
Being an exploration of opportunity, I was not quite dressed for it nor even properly equipped. Most notably, I did not have my tripod, and I ended up having to shoot hand-held at high ISO.
1. This shot belies the scale of the place. Shot #5 shows this better as there is a normal door for scale. I was pretty safe inside as the great sunny day made anything inside invisible... unless you stood right in a doorway.
2. You can see the high-ISO noise here. This was an exploration of opportunity, and as such I did not have 1) my tripod, which necessitated high ISO hand-held shooting; 2) my headlamp, which ruled out exploration of the extensive substructure; 3) low-visibility clothing, which became an issue when the security returned and I was trying to get out.
3. A random pit that I did not fall into. The almost-fubar'ed nature of this photo is because the pit is literally pitch-black, and the photo is a hand-held, wide-open, 1 second exposure at ISO25600. I mention this because I DID fall into another random pit, but I was very lucky that it was only a yard deep.
Again, they were building some big things here.
Obviously, no picture is worth losing your life for. This should have been on my mind, as a close friend of my father died a couple of years ago falling off a cliff trying to take a picture of his wife. They had kids, of course. She watched him fall over backwards, which I'm sure plays out in her mind in terrible slow motion as a day of fun turned into something else in literally a moment. I heard there was even shots of the moment in the camera that they recovered.
I'm making a point of this because I was trying to be very conscious of the huge, gaping, rail-less pits in the floor. Yes, it was dark. But my eyes were acclimated and they were visible, even with the debris strew about. What happened was that a beam of light filtered out through a vent fan in a wall. You can imagine the shot. A literal beam of light with dust to show it. I was staring at the light. I was moving to find a good angle. And then there was no floor.
Moral: A good shot can be a siren song to your doom in Urbex. Seriously, be careful.
4.
5. Can't resist a catwalk shot.
6.
7. Blowers for the welding wing.
As I wrapped up to leave, I took care to scope the exit. The guard was back, in his car, kickin' back. I had to take an alternate route out of the facility, which involved the classic object-to-object sneaking... which allowed me to duck out onto railroad tracks. A bit more of an adventure than I had bargained for.
[last edit 4/22/2012 5:47 AM by dtewsacrificial - edited 1 times]
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Joel
  
RED DRAGONS!!!!
Location: Katy, TX
Gender: Male
Chilling on a wall
| | Re: A sneaking mission of opportunity.
<Reply # 1 on 4/22/2012 5:52 AM >
| | | | Really fun story! Glad you were able to sneak in. Also nice photos! Thank you for sharing! 
Flickr: http://www.flickr....61765601@N04/sets/ |
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cdracingzx6r
Location: Orange County, California
Gender: Male
| | Re: A sneaking mission of opportunity.
<Reply # 2 on 4/22/2012 7:20 AM >
| | | | Posted by dtewsacrificial
Hello again, y'all. Back from the late winter that I furiously devoted to Kirkwood. It was awesome, BTW.
So I'd been scouting this place, which is a defunct metalworks. I was, um... dissuaded... from being even in the vicinity (a block away?) by some sort of official. I also noted there was a security guard at the entrance, albeit he didn't seem like he was very diligent, as he was napping in his car.
.....
As I wrapped up to leave, I took care to scope the exit. The guard was back, in his car, kickin' back.
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lol, I love the way everyone describes the guard at this place. He's very devoted to his work it seems.
http://500px.com/Scott-G-Photography
http://www.flickr....otos/rdmsguy/sets/ |
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dtewsacrificial
Location: Bay Area, CA
Gender: Male
On my way out the door.
| | | Re: A sneaking mission of opportunity.
<Reply # 3 on 4/22/2012 9:55 AM >
| | | | Oh man, didn't know there was another thread already devoted to this place.
Here it is as a cross-reference. There's a lot of background and photos of the other building that I did not explore:
http://www.uer.ca/...d=1&threadid=91552
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TRUE
Location: Nor-Cal
Gender: Male
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be..."
| |  | Re: A sneaking mission of opportunity.
<Reply # 4 on 4/22/2012 8:28 PM >
| | | | Cool "dark" shots! I've been wanting to get out there. Maybe we should get together and go sometime soon. And, take flashlights & "charged" batteries. The batteries died in my camera or I forgot my flashlight on the last four explores I've done. *facepalm*
The Rebel Urban Explorer |
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Raven928
Location: San Gabriel Valley, CA
Gender: Female
Miss Raven
| |  | | Re: A sneaking mission of opportunity.
<Reply # 5 on 4/23/2012 5:09 AM >
| | | | Great shot! That was a sad story, which has now made me even more paranoid of falling.
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bonnie&clyde
Location: 510 & 415
Cleverly disguised as responsible adults
| | Re: A sneaking mission of opportunity.
<Reply # 6 on 4/23/2012 5:45 AM >
| | | | Those pits in the ground scare the heck out of me!
Sounds like u had fun gettin out of there! Last time we went the guard coming on duty drove OUT of 1 of the buildings
The question is not when are we gonna stop, It's who's gonna stop us?
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